Michael D. Coogan, editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, 3rd ed. and co-editor of the Oxford Companion to the Bible, is currently director of publications for the Harvard Semitic Museum and Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

• In the Beginning: The Earliest History ; Before Israel: Syria-Palestine in the Bronze Age ; Bitter Lives: Israel in an dout of Egypt ; Forging and Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel ; "There Was No King in Israel" The Era of the Judges ; Kinship and Kingship: The Early Monarchy ; A Land Divided: Judah and Israel from the Death of Solomon to the Fall of Samaria ; Into Exile: From the Assyrian Conquest of Israel to the Fall of Babylon ; Israel Among the Nations: The Persian Period ; Between Alexandria and Antioch: Jews and Judaism in the Hellenistic Period ; Visions of Kingdoms: From Pompey to the First Jewish Revolt ; Churches in Context: The Jesus Movement in the Roman World ; Transitions and Trajectories: Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire ; Chronological Table of Events ; General Bibliography ; Notes on Contributors ; Index

this work is one of solid scholarship. It is informative and very suitable for student use and for the general reader.